Or email me at tallulahterryll(at)yahoo.com
Tallulah Terryll's work reflects a fascination with the rhythms of everyday life. Even outside of her art practice, the artist is drawn to instances of such repetition, as evidenced by an ongoing project in which she uses a pedometer to measure her number of steps daily and distance traveled, which are then neatly plotted on a graph. Likewise, in the absence of figuration or narrative, Terryll's repeated round glyphs emerge as patient recordings of time and movement. Her undulating, abstract fields of circular shapes are generated using a unique print method involving hand-cut stencils made of reinforced paper, through which she brushes watercolor and acrylic. Each work is built up in multiple layers of paint, ink, and translucent Japanese paper secured to panel; the final surface contains a shifting rhythm of interior and exterior as its various layers merge and interact.
Given that Terryll lived in Nagoya, Japan from 2004 to 2006, and her studio is filled with Japanese inks and papers it is tempting to assume that her formal sensibility evinces an Eastern influence, particularly from the ordered abstract patterns of Japanese textiles. She points out that such patterns appear in textiles from around the world. Rather than being an extension of Japanese aesthetics, her work is more aligned with the celebrated and universal observation by 19th-century painter Maurice Denis: "It is well to remember that a picture — before being a battle horse, a nude woman, or some anecdote — is essentially a plane surface covered with colors arranged in a certain order."
To generate patterns for her work, Terryll often repurposes familiar round objects (bubble wrap, rolls of tape, etc) as print matrices, dipping them directly in ink and stamping them on sheets of paper strengthened with persimmon juice and silk, which are then hand-cut to create sturdy yet intricate stencils. Although she was trained as a printmaker and operates technology ranging from large-scale industrial flatbed printers to etching presses to automated mat cutters in her job as printer at Magnolia Editions, for her own practice, Terryll has developed a printmaking technique which is completely self-contained, requiring no press or tools beyond the hand-held. The artist ascribes this to a fiercely independent nature: "It's the same reason I've never learned to drive," she says, "I wouldn't want to have my car break down somewhere and have to wait for someone else to fix it; I like to be self-reliant."
Selected Group and Solo Exhibitions:
2010 Showcase of Recent Works
Pivot Gallery. Via Berkeley California
Show and Tell: My Summer Fantasy
Gallery Extraña, Berkeley, California; Curated by Aimee
Friberg
Round Rhythm: Alissa Goss and Tallulah Terryll
The Compound Gallery, Oakland, California
2008 New Work
The Compound Side Gallery, Oakland, California
Petri Dishes
The HiArt Gallery, New York, New York; Curated by
Jazz-minh Moore
2007 Recent Works
Afterglow Boutique and Gallery, Oakland, California
2006 "Curtain" installation
KD Japon, Nagoya, Japan
"Facing East" western women making art in Japan
The Plastic Factory, Nagoya, Japan; Curated by Amanda
MacDonald
2005 Nagoya International Artists Exhibition
International Center, Nagoya, Japan
2004 Recent Works
KD Japon, Nagoya, Japan
Nagoya International Artists Exhibition
International Center, Nagoya, Japan
Sosaku Hanga
Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, WA; Curated by
Kathleen Rabel
Pattern
Black Lab Gallery, Seattle, WA; Curated by Tory Franklin
2003 Cornish BFA Show
Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle WA
2002 Summer Vacation
Kerry Hall, Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle WA
Collections & Prizes
Collection of Studio Blu
Mary Alice Cooley Print Collection
Cornish College Merit Scholar 2001-2002
Education
2003 B.F.A. Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, WA; Graduated Magna Cum Laude
